Tesla To Get Serious Competition From Volvo And Porsche In Electric Battle

Peter Lyon
, ContributorI focus on all things to do with cars.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Elon Musk tweeted that the Model 3 had finally rolled off the production line. (AP Photo/Justin Pritchard)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk just tweeted a photo of the first Model 3 to roll off the production line. In the world of electric cars, this model is a true watershed moment as it will bring good-looking, range anxiety-free, state-of-the-art pure electric motoring to the masses for around $35,000.

But even though Tesla plans to ramp up production to 20,000 units a month by December this year, the company will find the electric market getting crowded very quickly. In fact, in the last few months, there has been a literal avalanche of news about mainstream manufacturers and their electric plans.

Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson shocked the car world last week when it announced that from 2019, all of its cars will be electrified. This means that the whole line-up will employ an electric motor – incorporated in a gasoline-hybrid or a battery-powered electric vehicle (BEV). Conventional gasoline and diesel engines will be phased out. Volvo’s decision is particularly bold as hybrid and electric cars make up just 2% of today’s US market.

So what’s causing this rush to electrify? It’s called EU 7. In 2020, Europe will introduce EU 7, a law that limits the average new car CO2 emissions to 95 grams per kilometre. European carmakers are becoming increasingly aware that they cannot meet these stringent EU 7 figures with current day internal combustion engines. Their only direction is electrification.

Other manufacturers see the need to follow this path as well. Volkswagen says it has plans to electrify one in four of its future cars, powering them by electric or hybrid motors. Unlike Volvo however, VW will retain its petrol and diesel technologies.

Meanwhile, Porsche recently announced that all of its cars will be electrified inside of 10 years. Company CEO Oliver Blume says that by 2023, he wants half the cars coming out of the factory to be electric. To start the ball rolling as early as 2019, Porsche will directly target Tesla with its 440kW Mission E concept that boasts a range of 500km. Blume also hinted that the company’s biggest selling Macan will appear as a pure electric vehicle by 2022. Such a strategy would greatly contribute to Porsche’s 50% electric target given that the Macan makes up approximately 40% of the company’s global production.